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Event Detail

Friday, March 29, 2013

Shaping the Futures of Thai Cities

Recognized as one of the most prolific Thai urban planners in his
generation, Apiwat Ratanawahara will discuss multiple challenges
facing the futures of Thai cities in the next two decades. These
challenges include population aging, foreign migration, economic
integration with other Southeast Asian countries and China,
large-scale infrastructure investment, and political, as well as
administrative decentralization. The particular attention will be
paid to the social and spatial implications of such trends, as well
as the prospects for urban planning and advocacy in the country.
Chaired by: Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Kenneth T. Young Professor of
Sino-Vietnamese History, Harvard University; With Introduction by
Bish Sanyal, Ford International Professor of Urban Development and
Planning, MIT, and Director of SPURS/HUMPHREY program, MIT;
Discussants: Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban
Planning and Design, and Diane E. Davis, Professor of Urbanism and
Development, Harvard University Graduate School of Design Professor
Apiwat Ratanawaraha teaches courses in urban planning and
development, land policy and management, and technology and
innovation policy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand,
where he is a professor of in the Department of Urban and Regional
Planning. He also teaches Energy and Infrastructure Technologies at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Apart from receiving
numerous prestigious scholarships, grants, and research grants, he
has served as a consultant and expert to both national and
international development organizations. Ratanawaraha was a
Harvard-Yenching Institute Doctoral Scholar (2000 - 2003) and
Research Fellow in Science, Technology, and Globalization at the
Belfer Center for Science ad International Affairs at Harvard
Kennedy School (2005 - 2006). He received his B.Eng. from Tokyo
University, M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and M.C.P.
and Ph.D. from MIT.